Heart of a King
by PepperjackCandy
Summary: What if, instead of Y chromosomes, Lionel had been serving up Xs when Lex was conceived? Meet Cleopatra "Leo" Luthor -- just like Lex, only female. CLex, but het.
1. Pilot A

The Heart of a King -- Part 1, Pilot(A) (and some Lineage)  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13 (Probably really only PG)  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of )/Clark

A/N: The title comes from a speech that Elizabeth I gave on the launch of her forces against the Spanish Armada. The full quote is _I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king._ I thought, first, "weak and feeble -- feh!" so limited it to "The Heart and Stomach of a King" part but, ew, so I dropped the "Stomach."  
1989  
  
**Leo**  
  
Leo Luthor was fascinated. She didn't understand half of what her Daddy and the other men were talking about, but nevertheless, she was fascinated.   
  
Why did her Daddy need to sign so many copies of that big, thick, document? What was due diligence? Indemnification?   
  
Someday, she promised herself, she'd know the answers to all of these questions.  
  
_help me_  
  
The voice was very weak, but it was calling for help and she couldn't ignore it. She went the direction of the cry, which led her into the nearby cornfield.  
  
_help . . ._  
  
She hurried faster.  
  
She heard her Daddy call out, "Leo! Leo! Cleopatra Luthor! You get right back here!"  
  
But the boy, she was sure it was a boy, was so close. She could almost feel him.  
  
"Le -- !"  
  
When his voice cut off, Leo ran back towards her Daddy. As she turned, she heard a loud whining sound, then a crash that made the earth shake beneath her feet.  
  
With difficulty, from the corn and from her asthma -- and how she wished she didn't have asthma! -- she made it to where her Daddy lay, unconscious. Just then, another crash, and this time she saw it -- a huge rock fell from the sky, landing just on the other side of the next row of corn.  
  
There was no time to waste. She knew she'd never make it back to the factory. And the other men were probably gone anyhow, with rocks falling from the sky. Once she'd calmed down enough to remember the flight in, she figured out which direction the road was. She just hoped she'd find someone with a car.  
  
**Jonathan**  
  
Jonathan Kent had to get home. He had to drive carefully (not easy with meteors landing all around him) and he had to drive quickly. Beside him, Martha held on to the strange little boy they'd found. The . . . pod that had been near him was in the bed of the truck. He just thanked God that Fred kept a blanket in his truck. This way instead of seeing the glint of metal in his peripheral vision, all he saw was the plaid of the blanket.  
  
Next to him on the bench seat, Martha soothed the strange little boy they'd found, whom they'd wrapped in the red blanket from their own, now totalled, truck.   
  
Jonathan became thankful that he'd been driving so carefully when a little girl in a green dress ran out into the road.  
  
He stopped, killed the engine, and looked over at Martha, "Seems to be the day for abandoned children."  
  
"At least this one's dressed," she said wryly as Jonathan got out of the truck. "We ran out of blankets."  
  
"What's wrong?" Jonathan asked her when he got close enough.  
  
"It's my Daddy. He's been hurt."  
  
"Take me to him."  
  
The little girl led Jonathan into Riley's field, to where a man about Jonathan's age, in an obviously-expensive suit, lay unconscious. "I would have called someone, but Daddy changed the combination on his briefcase again, and I haven't figured out the new one."  
  
Jonathan knew he should check for spinal injuries before picking the man up, but they could be flattened by a falling rock at any time, so there wasn't much time for formalities. He took the man's right shoe off, handing it to the flummoxed girl, and ran a thumb up the man's sole. The man's face twitched, but there was no other response, which in the situation was good enough for Jonathan.  
  
He picked the man up and together, he and the little girl walked back to the truck.  
  
Once they were close to the truck, Martha and the little boy got out.   
  
"I'm going to have to lay him down on the seat next to me. So you . . . ," he paused while he tried to figure out what to call the little boy, "and the kids'll have to ride in the bed."  
  
She nodded and took the little girl's hand. Knowing that Martha had it under control, Jonathan worked on settling the man in on the seat of the cab, feet toward Jonathan, head toward the door. Wishing he could have safely seatbelted the man down, Jonathan closed the door of the cab and walked around the back of the truck, where Martha was sitting in the bed, holding the little boy, the little girl sitting next to her.  
  
He continued his walk to the driver's side door, and started the truck back up.  
  
**Martha**  
  
Martha leaned back against the pod, hoping the weight of her body would hold the blanket in place.  
  
"I never caught your name," Martha said to the little girl.  
  
"Leo Luthor," she said in a strangely mature tone of voice.  
  
"I'm pleased to meet you, Leo. I'm Martha Kent."  
  
"Is the little boy your son?"  
  
Martha sighed. "No. We found him by the side of the road. We don't know who his parents are." _But I wish he was my son,_ she added silently.  
  
"I'll ask my Daddy. He can help you," she answered as her eyes locked with the little boy's.  
  
Martha wasn't sure how to respond to this, "Thank you," was all she could come up with.  
  
They arrived at the hospital and Jonathan carried the man, _Lionel Luthor?_ Martha wondered silently, into the hospital.  
  
After a moment of internal debate, Martha lowered the tailgate, and she, Leo, and the boy followed.  
  
The hospital was a madhouse. The regular triage window was closed, most likely because the number of injured people between the door and the window made using the window impractical.  
  
After Jonathan had gone off in search of someone, Martha was approached by a woman in a white lab coat. "May I help you?" She looked from Martha to the naked boy in the blanket.  
  
Unconsciously, Martha held the little boy tighter. "My husband's here somewhere, looking for help. This little girl's," she indicated Leo, "father was injured."  
  
The woman crouched down near Leo and took a pad out of her pocket. "First, give me your father's name."  
  
**Jonathan**  
  
After pacing around for a couple of minutes, finally found a man in a lab coat..   
  
"Here, let me get a gurney," the man said as he disappeared into the back room.   
He returned a moment later, and Jonathan laid his burden down.  
  
"I don't know who this guy is. His daughter flagged us down. But I checked for a Babinsky's reflex and he doesn't have one, so I'm pretty sure his spine's all right."  
  
"Where is she?"  
  
Jonathan looked around, "Over there somewhere."  
  
"What color hair does she have?"  
  
"Red."  
  
"Ah. I think I see her."  
  
He disappeared into the crowd and returned a moment later, dragging Martha, the little boy, the little girl, and a woman in a lab coat behind him.  
  
"This is Mr. Luthor?" The woman asked as the girl ran forward.  
  
"Daddy!" She almost shouted, running to the prone figure of her father.  
  
The man in the lab coat looked astonished as he looked from Martha to the little girl and back. "And you're . . ."  
  
"Martha Kent."  
  
"Another radiation burn just walked in," the man sighed as he headed for the sliding doors that led to the emergency room.  
  
After he disappeared, the woman in the lab coat said, "I'll transcribe the information on Mr. Luthor to a chart and look him over before transferring him up to a room. Then I'll call Mrs. Luthor. Unfortunately, every available space we have is taken up right now, so we don't have any room for Leo . . ."  
  
"Don't worry." Martha assured her. "We'll take her home with us. You can call us to bring her back when Mrs. Luthor gets to town. Here's our number."  
  
Jonathan knew that Martha had a frustrated maternal instinct, but this was getting ridiculous. "And what about the boy?" He asked.  
  
Martha's eyes shot to him.  
  
"What about him?" The woman asked. "I thought he was your son."  
  
"No. We just found him out there in the storm. I suppose his people are looking for him."  
  
"Oh. Well, you don't mind taking him for a while, do you? I'll have Melinda call Social Services and a social worker should be out to see you tomorrow," she looked around, "or the next day," she added dubiously.  
  
Jonathan pursed his lips, but couldn't come up with an argument to this. He nodded curtly. "That'll be fine."  
  
Then he hustled the other three back to the truck.  
  
**Lionel**  
  
The first words Lionel heard upon waking were, "Mr. Luthor's in no shape to be receiving any visitors."  
  
"Let Mr. Luthor be the judge of that," Lionel said through a froggy throat.  
  
Moment later, two African-American men burst through the door. "We've changed our minds about the sale, Luthor."  
  
"I'm afraid it's too late," Lionel's voice was getting stronger by the moment, "the definitive agreement's been signed, and can only be terminated if . . . "  
  
"But you wandered off before signing all of the copies of the agreement. Duncan's copy . . . ."  
  
"I have all of our signatures on my copy, which is safe in my briefcase," he blustered, hoping that his briefcase was still safe, "so I'm afraid it'd be up to you to prove that the three of you didn't just sign a blank sheet and affix it to the back of one of your copies. If you try to get out of that, I will sue you for breach of contract. Good afternoon," he dismissed them.  
  
The two men were to the door when Lionel stopped them, "Oh, and I'm going to look into that attractive nuisance in your neighbor's cornfield."  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"That little crucifixion scene. Or is that your own property? If so, I'm sure the police will enjoy investigating. Have a nice day, gentlemen."  
  
The two men left, and, sure he wouldn't be hearing any complaints about his offering price again, Lionel slept.  
  
**Lillian**  
  
It was late by the time Lillian arrived at the Smallville Medical Center. Lionel had been asleep, and the staff wanted to keep him over night for observation. They thought he only had a sprained ankle and a slight concussion, but some people were coming in with strange symptoms from the meteor shower, and they didn't want to release him until they were certain that he wouldn't require further treatment.  
  
So it was that Lillian came to be driving up the road to the butter-yellow farmhouse. She hadn't been able to call ahead, the phone lines had been down, but she was certain that she was in the right place when she saw the sign hanging above the gate reading _Kent Farm_.  
  
She walked to the door and, mindful of the late hour, knocked softly.  
  
A moment later, a woman with red hair opened the door. It was, strangely, almost like looking in a mirror. "Mrs. Kent?" She asked.  
  
"Yes. Oh! You're Mrs. Luthor, aren't you? Won't you come in."  
  
Mrs. Kent stepped out of the way, and suddenly, 60 pounds of nine-year-old girl nearly bowled her over. "Mother!" Leo cried holding on tightly.  
  
Lillian finally let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Reunited with her baby. Their relationship wasn't always a smooth one, but she loved Leo, and would do anything for her.  
  
"Get anything you brought with you. They're keeping Daddy, so we'll go get a hotel room in town for tonight."  
  
"Oh! You don't need to do that!" Martha hastened to say. "In fact, the Smallville Arms might not even be open, considering all that's happened. Our second bedroom has a double bed in it. You can sleep there."  
  
"What about your son?" Lillian indicated a little boy in a blue shirt playing on the floor.  
  
Something unreadable passed between the elder Kents, and Martha said, "He's not our son. He's sort of a . . . stray I took in. He was wandering around in the meteor shower, and we couldn't see where his folks could be, so we brought him home."  
  
"Mrs. Kent wants to adopt him," Leo said, straightforwardly. "Can you help her?"  
  
Lillian smiled at her daughter. "I know some people in Metropolis Social Services. I'll see what I can do."  


_Next: **Pilot(B) -- 2001**_


	2. Pilot B

The Heart of a King -- Part 2, Pilot (B)  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of )/Clark  
  
A/N: The zebra thing will be explained later.  
  
2001  
  
" . . . and that's the entire tour, Miss Luthor," Gabe Sullivan finished.   
"Please. Call me Leo. And could you step into my office for a second?"  
  
"Certainly, Mi . . . Leo."  
  
Leo closed the door and buzzed her secretary. "Silvia, Mr. Sullivan and I will be in a private meeting for the next half hour or so."  
  
"Very well, Miss Luthor."  
  
She turned back to Gabe. "All right. I'm going to be frank with you. My father has sent me here to fix Mr. Rayner's mistakes. He wants this plant making money, and he doesn't care how I go about doing it. If I choose to cut your workforce in half, he'll approve it."  
  
She forestalled his protest, "I'm not going to do that. I know that would save money now, but we'd lose money in the long run, and we'd irreparably damage the economy of Smallville. So, making this place profitable is going to be a painstaking process. But it'll be well worth the effort.  
  
"My father is a big believer that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It's an obsession with him, in fact. The role model of my childhood and youth was Queen Elizabeth I. Her most trusted advisor was Sir William Cecil. You're a good man, Gabe. I've asked around about you. I'm offering you the chance to be my Sir William Cecil, if you're interested."  
  
Gabe's eyes fairly bugged out. "I'd be honored."  
  
Leo smiled. "Good. So, let's get started then, shall we?"  
  
***  
  
Clark leaned over the railing of the bridge, looking out into the water. _Keep your head down. Safety in numbers. How the hell am I supposed to find safety in numbers when the other zebras are going to be at the homecoming game?_  
  
_It was bad enough when I knew that Chloe would be covering it for the paper, but now Pete's on the team, and where does that leave me? Hoping that Chester or Eugene get tagged instead of me, because if I'm chosen, I'll really draw attention to myself . . ._  
  
He was distracted by the sound of an oncoming car, only, there was something wrong with it. He turned in the direction of the sound to find the car barreling towards him.  
  
***  
  
Leo felt good about her first day at the plant. There was a spring in her step as she thought about how happy her father would be when she made the plant profitable. Today, Fertilizer Plant No. 3, tomorrow the world.  
  
She got into her car, started it up, rolled down the windows, and headed toward the mansion.  
  
About halfway home her car, which she had always had maintained perfectly, started to rattle. She made a mental note to have the mechanic look at it as soon as she got home.  
  
As she drove onto the bridge which marked the halfway point of her drive, a roll of wire fell off a passing truck directly into her path. She pulled her steering wheel sharply to the right to avoid the wire, as she slammed on the brakes. The brakes squealed, but it was too late to stop before she hit the guardrail. She made a vain attempt to pull back to the left. Her car continued to swing to the right.  
  
The last thing she saw before she went through the guardrail were the startled green eyes of a teenaged boy.  
  
_Oh, shit._  
  
***  
  
_Don'tdieonme. Pleasedon'tdieonme._  
  
Leo belched water out of her lungs in a most unladylike fashion. "I'm not going to die." She finally croaked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You were begging me not to die. I'm not going to. So you can stop now."  
  
With that, she flopped back down onto the rocks that lined the bank of the river.  
  
A moment later, she leaned back up. "I could've sworn I hit you."  
  
"If you did, I'd be . . . I'd be dead."  
  
Clark looked up at the bridge. _Great. My fellow zebras are going to be somewhere else at Homecoming, not that it matters, because apparently I'm not a zebra, I'm a fucking giraffe._  
  
***  
  
"Who's the maniac that was driving that car?" Clark's father demanded as he got out of his truck.  
  
He heard a female voice ask, "Mr. Kent?"  
  
He looked over and there was one heart-stopping moment before he realized who he was looking at, all grown up, "Leo Luthor?"  
  
She smiled and nodded, then looked at Clark, "Oh, my God. When you said, 'Kent,' I didn't realize . . .," her eyes widened. "The last time I saw you, you were . . . ." She held out a hand about hip-height.  
  
"The last time you saw me?"  
  
"Yes. The day of the meteor shower."  
  
"Her father," Jonathan snarled those words, "was injured, and your mother and I took him to the hospital," he finished bitterly.  
  
"Well, thank you, Clark Kent," Leo said, smiling just a little too warmly for Jonathan's comfort. "If there's anything I can do to repay you. . . ."  
  
"Drive slower."  
  
With that, Jonathan took Clark by the shoulder. Clark cast one look back at Leo as his father led him towards the truck.  
  
***  
  
Leo wasn't performing anything like a specific _kata_, she was just blowing off steam. She'd gotten the report back from her mechanic, and, aside from the shredded seatbelt, which they had no explanation for, nothing was wrong with the car.  
  
Which meant one of two things -- either she had been driving recklessly, which was highly unlikely, or someone **had** tampered with her car, and was paying off her mechanic.  
  
With an unconventional karate yell of, "Shit!" she gave the final board a resounding kick, shattering it, and sending the largest piece soaring through the air towards the door of the room.  
  
Where Clark Kent stood, dumbfounded.  
  
He managed to duck the piece of wood just in time.   
  
"Clark! I'm surprised to see you here. How'd you get in?"  
  
"I slipped through the bars."  
  
"Domo arigato," Leo bowed to her partner before she left the mat.   
  
They began to walk down the hallway together. "You're very good at that," he said.  
  
"Karate? Well, that wasn't really anything, you know. I was just blowing off steam."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just . . . stuff," she evaded. "So, how's the new ride?"  
  
"That's why I'm here."  
  
"You don't like it? Is it the wrong color?"  
  
"No. It's . . . it's beautiful."  
  
"Ah. You wanted something sportier, then."  
  
"No!" He yelped. "Actually, my dad won't let me keep it."  
  
"Clark, you saved my life. I think It's the least I can do."  
  
"He says I don't . . . I shouldn't . . . . He said some really nasty things about your dad."  
  
Leo, who'd been in the middle of opening a bottle of water, stopped, "Like what?  
  
"Like that your dad cheated some of his friends out of their land."  
  
"Oh, that's just business. Would you like a drink?"  
  
"Um, sure. You have any pop?"  
  
She opened the mini-refrigerator under the bar. "Pepsi OK?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
She held out a can of Pepsi. When Clark walked over to take it from her, their fingers brushed.  
  
"What do you think of flying, Clark?" She asked, looking directly into his green eyes.  
  
"Scares me to death. The thought, that is. I've never actually flown anywhere. I've never really been anywhere outside Lowell County, really."  
  
She smiled. "I'll have to take you to Metropolis sometime."  
  
Clark looked at her questioningly.  
  
"You and I are connected now. So, let's drink to our alliance."  
  
"Alliance?"  
  
"Partnership? Synergy?"  
  
"Friendship?" He hazarded.  
  
"Friendship."  
  
She clinked her bottle of water against his can of Pepsi and they drank.  
  
***  
  
Gabe had left hours ago, but Leo stayed to work on trimming the budgets. It was after dark and time to go back to the mansion and get some sleep.  
  
_Help me._  
  
Leo refused to let herself be slammed back to childhood. This time, at least, she knew where the sound was coming from. _Damn highschoolers._  
  
_help me._  
  
The voice was getting softer. She had to hurry.  
  
She ran through the cornfield, making a beeline right for the place she knew the poor kid would be.  
  
She stopped suddenly as she realized she recognized the poor freshman on the cross. _Clark?_   
  
This made it even more imperative that she get him down. The crosspiece was a little high, but she pulled a knife out of her purse and stretched up as far as she could as she sawed through the ropes binding him.  
  
She did her best to cushion his fall. He looked terrible and was cold to the touch.  
  
He gestured towards the necklace around his neck. He seemed to want her to take it off, so she did.   
  
As soon as she had the necklace in her hand, Clark stood and sprinted off through the corn.  
  
He hadn't even said 'thank you.'   
  



	3. Metamorphosis

The Heart of a King -- Part 3, Metamorphosis  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of)/Clark  
  
A/N: Again, only the stuff that's changed is in here, so you'll just have to remember the big Clark/Greg fight at the end.  
  
Also, um, Lex just happens to have a lead box lying around and chooses that one, of all of them, to put the necklace into? So not going to happen in this universe.  
  
======  
  
_So. This is the Smallville Farmer's Market. What does one do at a Farmer's Market? Farm? Market? Er's?_  
  
She was brought out of her reverie by a male voice asking, "Excuse me. Miss Luthor?"  
  
Leo turned and found herself face-to-face with a police officer, "Good morning, Officer . . ."  
  
"Sheriff, ma'am. Sheriff Waid."  
  
"Yes, of course. How may I help you?"  
  
"I wanted to ask about the driver's side seatbelt in your car. Do you have any idea how your seatbelt got torn up like that?"  
  
She smiled widely and lied blatantly, "I could've sworn I saw Clark Kent put a knife back in his pocket after I woke up."  
  
"A pocketknife?" The sheriff tensed up.  
  
"Yes," she paused, running through her memory of Kansas' statutes, "the blade was three, three and a half inches long . . . ."  
  
Sheriff Waid relaxed, "and he sawed through the seatbelt with the knife?"  
  
"Well, he must have, mustn't he? I mean, he hardly could've torn through it with his bare hands." She laughed lightly.  
  
The sheriff echoed her laughter, "Of course not."  
  
"Will there be anything else, Sheriff?"  
  
"No, thank you, Miss Luthor."  
  
The sheriff left and Leo continued walking the market, until she found Clark, who was watching a young man and woman kissing.  
  
She approached Clark from behind, noting how he sat down on the edge of the bumper as she got closer.  
  
"They're a lovely couple," she said once she was close enough.  
  
"Yeah." He said noncommittally.  
  
"I wanted to ask about this," she took the necklace out of her pocket, holding it where Clark could see it.  
  
When Clark flinched away, Leo assumed it was because of the bad memories of the previous night. "It's Lana's," he choked out.  
  
"Lana's?" she repeated, realizing that Lana was the name of the girl of the couple who'd been kissing earlier. But when she looked over there, the couple was gone.  
  
She stuck the necklace back in her pocket. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Yeah. Fine." He said shortly. But she heard the plaintive _get that thing away from me,_ that he didn't voice.  
  
"Don't worry. You won't see this necklace after today. I promise." She answered his unvoiced plea. Then followed it up with a more uncertain than she wanted it to be, "See you around?"  
  
Clark managed a strained smile and nodded.  
  
"Good."  
  
Now to make good on her promise to Clark.  
  
***  
  
She only had to wait in the stables for fifteen minutes before Lana came riding up.   
  
"Your form's good but his gait's off. You might want to check your shoes," Leo said by way of introduction. When the young girl didn't respond, she said, "Leo Luthor. My dad's a friend of your Aunt Nell."  
  
"We've already met."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"When I was ten, I went to Metropolis for a riding competition,. Your father invited us to stay over. I only saw you the once. You didn't see me, though. You were reading something and nearly plowed me over in the hallway."  
  
"You're right. I have no recollection. Oh, wait. That . . . little girl? Was you?"  
  
She nearly laughed at the memory of the bewilderment on Lana's face when she asked the ten-year-old about chaos theory, so instead, she pointed out a cabinet full of trophies and ribbons. "These yours?"  
  
Lana nodded. "It's tacky, but it makes Nell happy."  
  
"Ah. I thought this necklace was yours." Leo reached into her pocket and held out the necklace.  
  
"Where did you find it?" Lana asked.  
  
"This year's scarecrow gave it to me."  
  
She blinked in surprise at this. "That's not possible."  
  
"Oh, I assure you. It is."  
  
"No. My boyfriend's captain of the football team. He promised me . . ."  
  
Leo saw her chance. If she couldn't give Clark a truck to thank him, she'd give him Lana Lang. "You have a boyfriend? What's his name?"  
  
Lana preened, "Whitney Fordman," she said proudly.  
  
"Whitney Fordman? The kid that Clark Kent saved today?"  
  
"I just came back from seeing him. He's lucky Clark was there."  
  
"I know the feeling. Kind of makes you wonder if you're with the right guy. One chucks footballs, the other helps save lives."  
  
Confusion graced Lana's symmetrical features.  
  
Leo moved in for the kill, "Speaking of saving lives, it's really surprising none of these . . . scarecrows of yours have died."  
  
"But it's not like they nail them up or anything," Lana looked affronted.  
  
"Nailing the victim is just a way of, say, adding insult to injury. The victim dies from asphyxiation. There's no way for him to support his own weight in this position," Leo extended her arms out to either side as an example, "so all of the body's weight is placed on the lungs, which give out, and the victim suffocates."  
  
Lana goggled. "So they could've **killed** those boys?"  
  
Leo nodded.  
  
Lana, flustered, said, "I've got to go talk to Whi - someone." She began to stomp away, then turned around and held out her hand. "May I have my necklace back?"  
  
Wordlessly, Leo held it out as Lana snatched it from her and stormed off.  
  
"Don't worry about me. I'll see myself out," Leo said to the horse.  
  
***  
  
Lana kept her mad-on going until she got to Fordman's.   
  
"Lana!" her oblivious boyfriend greeted her as she stomped up to him.  
  
"We need to talk," she said shortly and dragged him outside. "Where were you before the game on Saturday?"  
  
"Can we talk about this later? I've got to get back to work."  
  
"It's a simple question, Whitney."  
  
"I was warming up."   
  
"So you didn't grab Clark Kent and hang him up in a field?"  
  
"Lana, it was just a prank."  
  
"'Just a prank'!?! Do you know how people on crosses die, Whitney?"  
  
"Yeah, but we're careful."  
  
"What does that mean? Has someone . . . been hurt?"  
  
Whitney started babbling. "Not for a long time. 16 years. We learned our lesson and now we put their elbows on the crossbar. It helps support them so that it doesn't happen again."  
  
Lana was appalled, she backed away saying, "I don't know, Whitney. I think I need some . . . time to think about all of this."  
  
Then she hurried away, trying to ignore Whitney's cry of "Lana!" from behind her.  
  
***  
  
Clark brought over Leo's produce order and decided to see if she was up for a visit. He took the opportunity to explore Leo's office a little and found a little toy harbor with little toy ships.  
  
Leo entered the room and greeted Clark with, "Save any lives on the way over? You keep it up and you could make a career out of it."  
  
"I was just dropping off your produce. Planning an invasion?"  
  
"My father gave this to me when I was nine."  
  
"Cool gift."  
  
"It wasn't a gift," she informed him haughtily, "It was a teaching tool. This," she held up a female figure, "was Cleopatra VII _Philopater_. The Cleopatra you probably know from school.  
  
"This," she held up a male figure, "was Mark Antony, Cleopatra's husband. Well, one of her four husbands."  
  
"Like a harem?"  
  
Leo thought about this, "Not really, though she did have two husbands at a time for a while. The Ptolemies married family members. Often it was their siblings. Cleopatra may have been the result of such a sibling marriage.  
  
"Anyway, Cleopatra's only brothers were much, much younger than she, but she married them for form's sake. One at a time.  
  
"During her marriage to her first brother, she was also married to Julius Caesar. He was the father of her eldest son, Caesarion."  
  
"Like the surgery?"  
  
"It means 'little Caesar,' and no, not like the pizza chain.  
  
"When Caesar died, his will adopted Octavian, whom you know as Augustus, and named him heir.  
  
"Her fourth husband, Mark Antony, took offense at this slight and made it his life's goal to get Octavian to cede control of the empire to Caesarion, which led to the Battle of Actium," she pointed to the toy, "and then to the end of the line of the Ptolemaic Pharaohs."  
  
"So where's Octavian?"  
  
"Oh!" Leo flipped part of the 'harbor' over and revealed a small island with built-up walls. "Here." She reached under the wall and pulled out another male figure.  
  
"I keep him hidden, because I don't like him much."  
  
"I'd imagine not. Though it sounds like all of the men in her life gave Cleopatra a lot of trouble."  
  
"Which was exactly Daddy's point. Well, one of them. He said that she was a powerful woman who made herself dependent on men who didn't respect that power.   
  
"The other was that, because of this dependence on these Roman men, she made herself dependent on Roman military power. However, since they were Roman, when the going got rough, the legions had a tendency to desert, leaving Cleopatra woefully undermanned.  
  
"That's why he sent me here."  
  
"To build an army?"  
  
Clark didn't know that Leo could blush, but she did. "More or less. He wants me to know that I'm never going to be dependent on a man. To . . . build an empire of my own."  
  
"Starting with the fertilizer plant."  
  
She nodded, "Along with any other business ventures that may come my way."  
  
***  
  
Tears in her eyes, Lana ran up to her bedroom. It was over. She could never go out with Whitney again. To think that he could possibly treat human life so casually.  
  
She looked down at the necklace in her hand. Now, instead of a memorial to her parents, all she could see when she looked at it was Whitney explaining that no one had died in over a decade.  
  
She opened her top dresser drawer, took out the box Nell had given her with the necklace, carefully placed her necklace inside it, and closed the book on that chapter of her life.  
  
***  
  
The next day, Clark walked up to the Fortress of Solitude, where he found Lana looking through his telescope at her house.   
  
Surprised, he greeted her, "Lana."  
  
"Your mom said I could wait up here. I hope you don't mind. This is an amazing place."  
  
"My dad built it. Calls it my fortress of solitude."  
  
"I didn't know you were into astronomy."  
  
"Th-that's a hobby."  
  
"Did you know you can see my house from here?"  
  
"No. Really?" He yelped. He moved the telescope's focus off of her house. "You know, we've lived a mile apart our whole lives and you've never come over."  
  
"And you're wondering what I'm doing here now."  
  
"Not that I don't enjoy the company, but yes, I was."  
  
"I found out about what Whitney did to you. The whole scarecrow thing and I came to make sure you were all right."  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"He had no right to do that to you - did you know that you could have died?"  
  
Clark just blinked at her, finally saying, "Who told you?"  
  
"Leo Luthor. And when she told me that people die from being *tied* up on crosses - well, I had to see Whitney. He told me that he knew that. Someone died in 1985."  
  
"What are you gonna do?   
  
"I'm not sure. I thought I knew Whitney. Now I wonder what else I've been blind to in my life."  
  
"I notice that your necklace is gone."  
  
"I can't wear it anymore. I loaned it to Whitney, and now all I can think of when I wear it is that someone died, and that you could have died."  
  
She looked deeply into Clark's eyes long enough that Clark cleared his throat and shifted back and forth on his feet before breaking eye contact.  
  
"It sounds kind of weird, but it's made from a fragment of the meteor that killed my parents. Nell had it made. Gave it to me the day she officially adopted me and told me that life is about change. Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's beautiful, but most of the time it's both. I better go. I'm glad you're okay, Clark."  
  
***  
  
Later that afternoon, Lana was feeding her horse when Greg Arkin appeared out of nowhere. "Hi, Greg," she said cautiously.   
  
"It's time."  
  
"Time for what?"  
  
"For us."  
  
With the proportional strength of an insect, or perhaps an arachnid, Greg grabbed Lana and began to walk away ignoring her feeble attempts to escape.  
  
Whitney, just arriving to try to make up with Lana, saw them, but was too far away to catch them. As he headed back toward his truck, he saw Clark approaching.   
  
"Are you here to bother Lana?" Clark asked.  
  
"I came to try to make up with her, but someone just carried her away. I think it was Greg Arkin."  
  
"Which way did he go?"  
  
"He headed off into the woods."  
  
"I think I know where he's going."  
  
"Great, I'll drive." 


	4. Hothead, the Dodecal

The Heart of a King -- Part 4, Hothead, the Dodecal  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of)/Clark  
  
A/N: Um, yeah, well, not much worth reporting in Hothead, because it's all either exactly the same, or totally different, in a "how, exactly, do you show Dominic not coming to relay Lionel's demands and Lionel not coming to visit to ensure that the demands he's not making aren't followed through on?" way. So I bring you a dodecal (144 words) of what's left.  
  
=========  
  
Leo had learned long ago that she had to be aware of everything, and everyone, around her. Toward that goal, she devoted herself to learning everything she could about the employees at the plant, so she pored over personnel files as she sat in a comfortable chair at the Beanery.   
  
Clark came to sit with her, something that she had, if she were completely honest with herself, been hoping for. He told her that he'd defied his father to join the football team.  
  
Drawn to Clark as iron to a lodestone, Lana sat down on the arm of his chair, handing Leo a mug of cocoa instead of a cappuccino, as she told him that she'd quit the cheerleading squad.  
  
As Leo watched them together, so young and charming, she decided that clearing Clark's way to Lana had been the right thing to do.   
  
----  
  
Next "week" in Heart of a King:  
  
Leo: I'm not a criminal mastermind.  
  
_Clark and Leo grin slyly at each other_  
  
***  
  
_Nixon shows Leo a file_  
  
Nixon: It's your juvenile record. Fascinating reading. It must have taken a Brink's truck of your dad's money to keep all those people quiet. 


	5. XRay

The Heart of a King -- Part 5, X-Ray  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of)/Clark   
  
A/N: More "um, that would totally not happen like that in real life" here - like, Lex, even a phony one, with a backpack? A red, canvas backpack? Um. No.   
  
========  
  
It was a beautiful, sunny fall morning when Leo Luthor robbed the Smallville Savings and Loan.  
  
First she tried to close her accounts with the bank, and when the bank manager noticed her signing the wrong signature with the incorrect hand, she pulled a gun from her jacket pocket and demanded the money instead.  
  
The false Leo Luthor then grabbed her now-full canvas gym bag and ran out, pushing Clark Kent out of the way as she ran. Only a timely application of superspeed stopped Clark from falling through the plate-glass window of the optometrist's office.  
  
But it didn't prevent the headache he got when his vision suddenly shifted and he found himself seeing the impostor's skeleton. Her green, glowing, skeleton.  
  
Leo arrived at the Kents' just in time to hear Jonathan say, "Clark, I know that she's a friend of yours, but come on. You saw her with your own eyes."  
  
"I don't know what I saw."  
  
Clark's defense of her warmed Leo's heart.  
  
"There must be some kind of reasonable explanation for this," Martha added.  
  
It made her feel better to know that Martha gave her the benefit of the doubt, as well, so she couldn't help herself. She responded, through the screen door, "Me too. I'd hate to think I have an evil twin."  
  
She updated them on what she knew of the investigation - she'd been at a reception for 200 fertilizer distributors at the time of the robbery, so she was cleared. Clark assured her that, though the robber had looked like her, he had known that it hadn't been.  
  
"I promise I'm not a criminal mastermind," she vowed.  
  
"I know. A criminal mastermind would have worn a mask," Clark grinned.  
  
"Or at least a decent-quality stocking over my head," she responded flirtatiously.  
  
As Leo exited the Beanery later that day, she was stopped by a man leaning against her car.  
  
"Roger Nixon, Metropolis Inquisitor," he introduced himself.  
  
"Get off my car, Mr. Nixon," she responded coldly.  
  
"That's a hell of a picture, Leo," he said, showing her a copy of the Inquisitor with a security camera shot of the impostor on it. "You know, it really boosted our sales."  
  
"I've read novels with less fiction than your rag."  
  
"Well, how about this? Is this fiction?" Nixon asked as he held out a slender file folder. "It's your juvenile record. Fascinating reading."  
  
"That record is sealed."  
  
"I'm a resourceful guy," Leo picked up the word _Phillip_ as if Roger had spoken it aloud.   
  
"You print one word about that, I'll sue."  
  
"Lawsuits take years. The genie will be out of the bottle and all the people will know just what kind of person is running the most important business in this one-horse town."  
  
"You know what I think, Rog?" She used the diminutive in response to his calling her 'Leo,' "If you wanted to print that, it would already be in the paper. I think you're looking for a payoff."  
  
"It's a business proposition. $100,000 and these records will disappear forever."  
  
"I'd question your integrity, but you're a journalist."  
  
"You got 24 hours."  
  
Leo took the card gingerly, as if it were a dead fish, and got into her car. "Good afternoon, Mr. Nixon."  
  
At the same time, over at Smallville High School, Tina had cornered Lana.  
  
"How do you like the sweater?" Tina asked.  
  
"It's great. I've got one just like it," Lana replied, trying to keep her voice cheerful while looking for someone - anyone - to rescue her.  
  
"I know. I got it at the same store. I've been going on this shopping spree. Hey, look. I even found this emerald necklace in the antique store."  
  
Lana's heart dropped into her stomach. It looked just like her necklace, "I don't wear that anymore," she told Tina.  
  
"Really? I stopped by your house earlier and Nell said you weren't in the best mood so... "  
  
"I'm fine. Don't worry about it."  
  
"Good, 'cause I need a favor. My mom is moving to Metropolis full-time but see, she doesn't want to pull me out of school. So I was thinking I can move in with you and Nell."  
  
The next afternoon, Leo sat in her office, having a drink with Roger Nixon.  
  
"You're feeling pretty good about yourself right now, aren't you?" she asked, "You'd think with all the money my father's spent, he could make things disappear."   
  
"Maybe he's not as smart as he thinks," Roger replied as he dropped the file onto the table. "The original. Have a nice life."  
  
"If you walk out that door, you may not live to regret it."  
  
"What are you gonna do? You gonna have me killed?"  
  
"Nothing so messy as that. With one call, I can ensure that there will be no record that you actually walked this earth."  
  
"You're bluffing."  
  
"Call your bank. See if your account still exists. That is, if your cell phone hasn't already been disconnected."  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
"Don't worry, Roger. I'm going to give you a new identity. One that's a little less upstanding. Maybe a murderer. Maybe a drug dealer. Either way, you'll lose your job, your house, and your family."  
  
"Look, I'll give the money back. Then we'll be even."  
  
"No, we won't. Because I also know your brother works for juvenile court. What'd you tell him? 'Steal the records and you can make some quick cash'? He could do time for that."  
  
"Leave him out of this."  
  
"I didn't get him involved, Roger. You did."  
  
"What do you want from me?"  
  
"A list of your sources. Not witnesses, just the experts. Scientists, lawyers, engineers. All of them."  
  
Roger looked at her, perplexed.   
  
"And don't try pulling a switch on me. If so many as one of your sources says, 'Roger who?' you'll be setting up housekeeping in Suicide Slum and your brother will serving five to ten at Ellsworth."  
  
"Here," Roger held out his PDA. "It has all of my contact information in it."  
  
"You certainly don't expect me to synch this up with my own computer, do you?" She thought for a moment. "I'll messenger this back to you this afternoon."  
  
"But --!"  
  
"I said that I'll messenger this back to you this afternoon."  
  
Roger, realizing that Leo had him over a barrel, left the room.   
  
In the hallway of Smallville High School, a young brunette in a pink sweater caught up to a handsome blond football player.   
  
"Hey," she said brightly, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow.  
  
Whitney looked down at her. "What are you playing at, Lana?"  
  
"What?" The brunette looked shocked by the cold reception.  
  
He shrugged her hand off of his arm. "I thought you were panting after Kent now."  
  
Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "Kent? Clark Kent?"  
  
"I didn't mean Mr. Kent. Jeez."  
  
As Whitney walked away, Tina-as-Lana thought, _Clark Kent. So that's the way the wind is blowing. Looks like I'm going to be taking a trip to the Wal-Mart in Grandville this afternoon._  
  
That night, as Lana was visiting her parents' graves, she was visited by a friend.  
  
"Lana?"  
  
She spun around, a broad grin on her face. "Clark! Hi!"  
  
"Whatcha doing?" the visitor asked, walking closer to her.  
  
"You know what I'm doing."  
  
Her visitor looked perplexed.  
  
"Visiting my parents," she indicated their gravestone.  
  
"You know, I think it's time you moved on."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Holding on to your parents' deaths like this isn't healthy."  
  
Lana found herself held in strong - very strong - arms. Their eyes met, and then their lips followed.  
  
The kiss broke with an audible slurping sound, and the visitor said, "You don't appreciate the things you have," the voice turned feminine, "but don't worry, I'll take good care of them for you."  
  
As Lana watched, the visitor's appearance shifted until she found herself looking at Tina.   
  
"Tina! What . . . .?" Her query was cut off, as Tina started to strangle her.  
  
Clark arrived in the cemetery, looking for Lana. Instead, he found Whitney. "Where's Lana?"  
  
"Oh, she's around here . . . somewhere," Whitney responded nonchalantly. "What I wouldn't give to have you following me around like a puppy dog," he said as he snaked an arm out and pulled Clark to him for a kiss.  
  
Three things happened at once; Clark realized that Whitney was kissing him, remembered that Whitney's clothes looked exactly like what he was wearing, and discovered that he couldn't pull himself free of Whitney's embrace without using his enhanced strength. These added up to one conclusion; Whitney wasn't the one kissing him - it was Tina.  
  
Finally, he wrenched himself loose. "Tina! Where is Lana?"  
  
Tina snarled, "She's dead," and launched herself at Clark.  
  
Later, the police loaded Tina into the back of a police car as Lana and Clark answered the police's questions.  
  
Chloe approached them, "Lana," she said with a quick glance at Clark. She handed Lana a tape labeled _Graduation Address 1977_.  
  
"Oh, my God. How did you find this?"  
  
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you, and it looks like you've had enough trauma for one night," she gave Lana a wan smile which she looked up to include Clark in.  
  
"Chloe, thank you."  
  
"No problem."  
  
The police officer had finished his questions and headed over to Nell for her signature as Lana's guardian. Lana raised up on her toes and kissed Clark on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow? At school?"  
  
"Yeah," Clark nodded, realizing that Lana wanted to be alone to listen to her mom's speech. "See you tomorrow," and with a kiss on her cheek, he left. 


	6. Cool

The Heart of a King -- Part 6, Cool  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of)/Clark   
  
========  
  
Leo stood to one side, watching Martha cutting firewood with a chainsaw. "Mrs. Kent!" She yelled.  
  
Martha didn't seem to hear her; she just kept sawing.  
  
"Mrs! Kent!" She yelled louder.  
  
Still no response.  
  
Finally, she walked quickly around Martha's other side, until she came into her line of vision. Waving her hands, she yelled, "Mrs. Kent!"  
  
Martha nearly lost her grip on the saw as she startled. She shut the saw down. "I'm so sorry. I didn't hear you. What brings you out here in the middle of the day?"  
  
"I'm here to place an order. I need about thirty artichokes."  
  
"Thirty? That's a lot of artichokes."  
  
"I'm meeting with some local farmers about some financial options. A lot of farms in town are having money trouble."  
  
"Most people aren't looking for more loans."  
  
"I'm offering my role as an investor-help people modernize and expand. This town once grew twenty percent of the corn in the state. Smallville was a heavy hitter. It just lost the drive to stay competitive.  
  
"I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on my proposal even if you're not interested."  
  
Leo walked up to the Beanery to see Clark looking at Lana through the shop window.   
  
"I'm surprised you haven't made your move yet."  
  
"'Made my move'?" he repeated back incredulously.  
  
"I expected you two to be inseparable by now."  
  
Clark looked down at the ground, clearly uncertain about what to say next.  
  
"You know, I bet if you ask Lana to go with you to the Radiohead concert in Metropolis tomorrow, she'll say yes," Leo pulled two concert tickets out of her pocket.  
  
"And if she says yes... "   
  
"I'll give you the tickets."   
  
"Why are you doing this?"   
  
"You're like the younger brother," she paused, "I never had."  
  
"I don't know. It's just so hard."  
  
Leo restrained from making a rude comment, "The hardest thing in the world is telling the girl you love that you like her. I'll raise the bet. You ask her in the next sixty seconds, you get the tickets, and I'll throw in a round-trip limo ride, starting now." She folded her arms and looked down at her watch.  
  
Clark flashed Leo a hesitant grin before taking the tickets, clearing his throat and going into the Beanery.  
  
"Hey, Lana, you busy?"  
  
"Completely swamped. That's why I'm sitting in a coffee shop attempting to wade through a Russian classic."   
  
"Oh."  
  
"That was a joke, Clark."   
  
"Good. 'Cause there's this thing tomorrow night."  
  
"Define 'thing'."   
  
"It's a concert-Radiohead, to be exact-and I got a couple tickets."   
  
"Wow. Where'd you get these?"   
  
"A friend. Something came up at the last minute, and I was wondering if you'd like to go, you know, with me."  
  
"I'd love to."  
  
"Wait, let me get this straight - you walked in to get a cappuccino and walked out with a date with Lana Lang?"  
  
Clark nodded and smiled, not a little bit smugly, "Yep."   
  
"How did you score the tickets?" Pete asked.  
  
"Leo hooked me up. Actually, Chloe, I have you to thank."   
  
"What did I do?"   
  
"You were right. I just had to get it out there."   
  
This time it was Chloe's turn to be smug. "Well, good. I'm glad."  
  
"Mr. Kent! Mrs. Kent! I'm delighted you decided to come." Leo greeted the Kents as they stepped into her study.  
  
"Your house it's very-"  
  
"Large?"  
  
"To put it mildly."  
  
"Well, if you're going to do something, might as well do it right, right?" She asked.  
  
"I-I'm sorry, are we early?"  
  
"I think we should go."  
  
"Wait, wait, Jonathan, just because no one else came-"  
  
"That is if anyone else was even invited."  
  
"Oh, I don't think Leo would- "  
  
"Actually, I would. I did. But only because I wanted you to have the first chance at this. I know that you're having problems, Mr. Kent. It's a small town."  
  
"So you thought you would just take advantage of my family's problem."  
  
"No. I thought I could help."  
  
"Well, then, I guess we're here to listen."  
  
Lana waited several hours for Clark to return to the Beanery. Eventually, she walked home.  
  
The lights flickered. "Guess the generator works. Power must have blown. Where were we?"  
  
"I believe you were explaining how you could single-handedly save the family farm," Jonathan responded snarkily.  
  
"Jonathan. . . "  
  
"It's okay, Mrs. Kent. I understand your husband's skepticism. Your farm's drowning in debt. We both know it. All I'm trying to do is offer you a hand but you keep slapping it away."  
  
"I learned a long time ago from a man much smarter than myself that you need to solve your own problems."  
  
"Your father lived in different times, and he had his share of help. It seems government subsidies carried him through a number of lean years."  
  
Martha leafed through the file that Leo handed them, "Where did you get these?"  
  
"It's a matter of public record. I'm making a business offer. I had to do my due diligence."  
  
"Why are you so interested in our family, Leo?"  
  
"I told you. I want to make a business investment. I'm giving you the first chance because I care about Clark."  
  
Jonathan bridled at the mention of his son's name. "I don't think we're interested."  
  
"Mr. Kent, Clark's my friend. I want him to have . . . ."  
  
Without another word, Jonathan stood and left the room. Martha threw an apologetic look back at Leo. "I'm sorry."  
  
Leo sighed, "So am I, Mrs. Kent."  
  
Soon after the Kents left, the lights went out and stayed out. Leo sighed and went outside to check the generator.   
  
She soon got it started again, only to be stopped by a blue teenager, "Lovely evening, isn't it, Miss Luthor?"  
  
"Get away from her, Sean!" Clark appeared out of nowhere, interposing himself between Leo and Sean.  
  
"I just want to get warm. And you'll do just as well as she would," Sean advanced on Clark, grabbing his wrist. "In fact, I think you'll do even better."  
  
"Leo, go in the house," Clark told her without breaking eye contact with Sean.  
  
"No," Leo rested one hand tentatively on Clark's shoulder.  
  
"I need you to call 911."  
  
"I'm a second-degree black belt, Clark."  
  
"Just go. Please."  
  
He could almost hear her cross expression and pursed lips as she left.  
  
He wrenched his wrist from Sean's grasp and took off at a lope towards the farther reaches of Leo's property. "Turn yourself in, Sean," he said, hoping to distract him.   
  
"For what? So I can spend the rest of my life in jail?"  
  
"Tell them that you didn't mean to kill Jenna."  
  
"Right. 'Cause I sucked the heat from her accidentally."  
  
"You didn't know, did you?"  
  
"Know what?"  
  
"What it'd do to her."   
  
Finally, they'd reached the place that Clark was heading for.  
  
"Well, since I'd already killed the school nurse that way, I think I did." As Sean spoke, Clark stepped quickly out of the way, tripping him at superspeed. Sean tumbled headfirst into the lake.  
  
The splash he left as he fell froze even as it stretched upwards.  
  
Clark headed back towards the house.  
  
"What happened?" Leo greeted him as he came through the front door.   
  
"I tricked him into falling into the lake out back. The lake froze solid around him. When'll the police get here?"  
  
"I didn't call the police."  
  
"What?"  
  
They heard the sound of a siren approaching and cutting off.   
  
"I called an ambulance. I thought you might need it."  
  
Clark panicked, knowing that the last thing he needed was to be examined by EMTs. "I'm fine. Sean might need help though. If he's still alive out there."  
  
"What are you doing here, anyhow, Clark? Shouldn't you be out on your date with Lana?"  
  
"Oh, my gosh!" Without another thought for the teenager frozen in the lake out back, Clark took off running at a fast human speed past the ambulance and out the gate.  
  
Once he was out of sight, he kicked his speed up and after a quick stop at the Beanery, was standing outside of Nell's house in ten minutes.  
  
He knocked on the door.  
  
"Clark! Come in," Nell said, smiling widely, as she opened the door.  
  
"Is Lana here?"  
  
Nell nodded, "I take it things didn't go well on your date?"  
  
"There . . . Can I just talk to Lana?"  
  
"She's in the kitchen."  
  
Clark walked into the kitchen and Lana looked up from her homework, her eyes red like she'd been crying.  
  
"Are you all right?" He asked softly.  
  
"Chloe must've been in some trouble."  
  
"Nah. I mean, she was, but it's all right now. I was wondering if you'd like to come over tomorrow night. We could rent a movie or do homework or something."  
  
"That'd be nice," she smiled weakly.  
  
"So I'll see you then."  
  
"Yeah. Good night."  
  
"Night."

The next morning, Leo approached Jonathan as he worked in the barn.   
  
"Good morning. I heard you took out a bank loan today."  
  
"Did you?"  
  
"Small town," she reminded him. "Well, anyway, I'm meeting with Tom McGregor tonight. Hopefully he'll have the good sense to let me invest in his operations."  
  
"Tom McGregor?"  
  
She nodded, "I told you. I want to invest in a local farm. I'm just sorry that it's not going to be you." Leaving Jonathan to chew on that, Leo departed. 


	7. Hourglass

The Heart of a King -- Part 7, Hourglass  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: Het, Genderbending  
Pairing: Lex (sort of)/Clark   
  
========  
  
Clark, still shaken by Cassandra's visions, was in the process of delivering Leo's produce when his friend drove up, parking in the parking circle in front of the castle. He slowed down to allow her to catch up.  
  
"Has everything been all right?" He asked. "You haven't had any more problems with your cars or anything?"  
  
"Why? Has something happened?" Leo asked.  
  
"It's only been a few weeks since I fished you out of a river, Leo." Clark's comment was delivered with a smile.  
  
"So why right now?"  
  
Reluctantly, Clark said, "I met this woman at the retirement center, and she can kind of see the future."  
  
"Let me guess. She told you your future," Leo said as Clark deposited the crate by the kitchen door.  
  
"Not exactly. She said someone very close to me would-," he couldn't finish.  
  
"Die?" Leo laughed.  
  
"I know it sounds nuts, but when you talk to her, it's like she really knows."  
  
"She knows, all right. She knows you'll buy it."   
  
"I think she's for real."  
  
"Then the question you have to ask yourself is...do you really want to know the future?"  
  
"Don't you wish you knew how it was all gonna turn out?"  
  
"Life's a journey, Clark. I don't want to go through it following a road map," she sat down on the sofa. "Come. Sit here. We need to talk."  
  
Clark dutifully sat on the sofa, and Leo pulled a photo from a file folder in her credenza and sat next to him.  
  
"I once read about a rich man who survived a hotel fire," she began. "He hung onto the ledge for an hour before the fire department rescued him. Afterwards, he bought the hotel...always stayed in that room. When they asked him why, he said he figured fate couldn't find him twice.  
  
"But every time I look at this picture, I wonder."  
  
She held out the photo for him to see, and he gasped at the image of the raggedly-torn seat belt - a seat belt he'd ripped with his bare hands when he rescued Leo. He quickly forced his face into an expression of innocent curiosity.  
  
"Sheriff Waid cornered me at the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago," she told him. "Wanted to know how you got me out of the car."  
  
She could see the panic in his eyes when he asked, "What did you tell him?"  
  
"That you had a pocket knife. One with a legal blade, of course. Don't want you getting in trouble for a pocket knife I never even saw."  
  
"Of," his voice cracked, "of course I had a knife. How else could I have gotten that seatbelt open?"  
  
"How else?" She repeated back to him slyly, clearly not buying it.  
  
"Maybe you lived because fate has something in mind for you."  
  
Leo snorted, "Lionel Luthor has something in mind for me. And Lionel Luthor is stronger than fate," there was a bragging tone in her voice.  
  
Clark wanted to tell her that she was more than her father's heir. She was important to him, too. Only he'd told her the only ways he knew how, and she didn't seem to understand.  
  
He tried one last time, "Leo, you're alive. The question you need to ask yourself now is, where do you go from here?" He walked out then, his head held high, leaving her alone with her photographic evidence.  
  
Leo made two attempts to see Cassandra. She turned tail and ran the first time.  
  
On her second visit, she walked into the elderly woman's room, a bouquet of white roses in her hand.  
  
"Miss Carver?"  
  
"Miss Luthor! You're the last person I expected to walk through my door."  
  
"I wanted to take you up on your offer."  
  
"I thought you controlled your own destiny."  
  
"I do. But certain things have happened in my life. Signs I don't want to ignore."  
  
"What kind of signs?"  
  
"A remarkable young man has entered my life. He saved me from drowning. I need to know if that means anything."  
  
"Ah, yes. Young Mr. Kent," Cassandra pointed to an empty chair. "Please have a seat."  
  
Cassandra held out her hand. Leo looked at it, reached forward, and then at the last second, snatched her hand back. "On second thought, no. I'm not going to give into this superstition."  
  
She stood.  
  
Cassandra spluttered, "But - you can't! You can't just give up like this! What about your friend Clark? What about your fate?!?"  
  
"I don't need oracles to tell me what my future will be," she replied, putting the roses down on the bed as she left the room.  
  
"Don't you understand!?!" Cassandra called out desperately as Leo walked down the hallway.  
  
Soon, Leo ran into Clark. "I'm not sure I'd go in to see Cassandra right now. She seems a little . . . stressed."  
  
"Stressed? Stressed how?"  
  
"I almost gave in to your weird superstition thing, but fortunately reason prevailed. I think it may somehow have unhinged her. She keeps yelling about my fate."  
  
"I'd better go check on her."  
  
"You want me to wait here?"  
  
"No, go on home. I'll be in touch with you."  
  
"All right," Leo didn't need to be told twice. She wanted to get as far from the raving old lady as she could.  
  
Clark walked into Cassandra's room and saw the difference immediately. "Clark!" she exclaimed, her eyes focusing on his face. "You're here!"  
  
"Yes. It's my scheduled time to visit."  
  
"I know. But . . . give me your hand."  
  
Clark reached out and took the woman's hand in his own.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
She blinked twice and laughed with an edge of madness. "My prediction didn't come true! I'm free!"  
  
And with that, she exhaled one last time and the light in her eyes went out.  
  
The first Clark noticed of the medical staff hovering behind him was when a nurse pushed him out of the way and set to work on Cassandra.   
  
After a few minutes, one of the nurses looked up. "You can go home, son. There's nothing anyone can do for Miss Carver anymore."  
  
Clark nodded and he headed for home, his mind swirling with thoughts of Cassandra, her passing having pushed all other thoughts from his head.  
  
Halfway home, he figured it out. _She saw her own death. And it didn't come true. Somehow that . . . broke the spell and she lost her 'gift' and the shock of it,_ he snorted mirthlessly, _the shock of it killed her._


	8. Craving

Title: Heart of a King 8 -- Craving  
Author: PepperjackCandy  
Archive: my writing at  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairing: Clark/Girl!Lex; other pairing withheld  
Category: Drama/Romance  
Spoilers for: Craving  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing Smallville-related, or related in any other way to Clark Kent, Superman or any of the various creations of the wonderful folks at DC Comics.  
  
Feedback: Always welcome, either by e-mail, using the review system at , or by commenting in my lj.  
  
A/N: I deeply apologize for the emotional scarring that's bound to result from this chapter.  
  
Leo buzzed around her home office, placing books on the bookshelves, picking file folders up off of the floor, sticking a three-page letter of intent into the fax machine and storing it into the machine's memory preparatory to sending it.  
  
"Miss Luthor, please sit down. We need to talk."  
  
"Just a minute," Leo picked up the incoming faxes and began stapling them. "I'll be," staple, "all yours just as soon," staple, "as I finish this, Dr. Vargas."  
  
Though, once the faxes had been stapled, Leo began to cast around for something else to do.  
  
"Your test results came back," Vargas began, watching Leo as she sat down at her desk and began to print something out.  
  
Not giving up, Vargas tried again. "The second batch of tests came back normal. In the high end of the range of normal, but we see a lot of that in people who've spent time in Lowell County."  
  
"Normal," she repeated as if the word had ceased to have meaning for her.  
  
"Normal."  
  
Leo grinned hugely and stood. She held out her hand to Vargas. "Thank you, Dr. Vargas. Manuel will see you out."  
  
As soon as the physician was gone, and the door closed, Leo allowed herself one skipping dance step back to her desk and set back to work.  
  
That evening, Clark came to her office. "Hey."  
  
Leo smiled brilliantly. "Just in time. Have a seat."  
  
"Just in time? In time for what?"  
  
Leo picked up a piece of paper from the printer and handed it to him as she sat down next to him. "What do you think?"  
  
"LeoCorp?" He looked up at her.  
  
"It's going to be the name of my new company," she paused, "you don't like it."  
  
"No! It's fine."  
  
She looked at him levelly, silently urging him to continue.  
  
"Well it seems to be . . . missing something. How about 'CleoCorp'?"  
  
"'Cleo'? Like Pinocchio's goldfish?"  
  
"Well, technically, it was Gepetto's, but . . . . All right, no Cleo."  
  
"Thank you," she said primly, sitting in the seat next to his. "I have another question. A . . . personal one."  
  
Clark flinched as if he'd been slapped.  
  
"I need to know if there've been any seemingly-miraculous healings in Smallville."  
  
"Miraculous healings?"  
  
"My doctor says that there's a high incidence of elevated white blood cell counts in Smallville, and so I was just wondering that, since these people don't seem to be sick, according to Dr. Vargas, whether they could just be really, really healthy."  
  
Clark shrugged, "I don't know. You might want to check with Chloe Sullivan. Weird things happening in Smallville is sort of her hobby.  
  
"Or, even better," he corrected himself, "you could stop by the Torch office sometime and see her research. She calls it the Wall of Weird."  
  
"Wall of Weird?" Leo repeated.  
  
"Silly name, huh?"  
  
"No! Well, maybe a little. But if it'll have the answers I need, who cares what it's called."  
  
They laughed for a moment, then Leo leaned forward, so close to Clark's personal space that he could smell her perfume. "So, how go things with the lovely Miss Lang?"  
  
"Most of my friends are trying to get out of high school."  
  
Leo turned from where she was checking out the Wall of Weird and favored Clark with a smile. "I was meeting with your principal. Apparently, you guys are in dire need of a new computer lab. I figured I could help."  
  
"And while you're at it, you thought you'd check out the Wall of Weird."  
  
She nodded. "You were right. She is very thorough. And they all seem to tie back to the meteor shower. Though I have my doubts about the six-fingered farmer."  
  
"Actually, that's Mr. Lincoln. He goes to my church."  
  
"Really? Well, you know I was here. It's when I met your parents for the first time. And you, of course."  
  
Clark suppressed a flinch at how close she was to figuring out the truth.  
  
Just then, they were interrupted by Chloe. "Ms. Luthor."  
  
"Please, call me Leo," she said, extending her hand for Chloe to shake. "Clark was just telling me your meteor theory. I like it. Especially since most people think my plant is secretly behind everything that goes wrong in Smallville."  
  
"That's the reigning theory."  
  
"Are you the only on that blames the meteors instead of me?"  
  
"Pretty much. Well, there is Dr. Hamilton."  
  
"Except most people don't have too high a regard for a guy who sells plastic meteor chips to tourists."  
  
"Doesn't exactly inspire confidence." She turned to Clark, "I'll see you tomorrow at the party."  
  
"We're just going as friends," Clark shot back.  
  
Leo grinned slyly, "Sure you are. Hope you got her a nice gift." With that parting shot, she left.  
  
"Hey, Leo," Clark said as he sat in one of her guest chairs.  
  
"What can I do for you, Clark?"  
  
"I'm totally stumped on what to give Lana for her birthday. I can't afford much, and other than the kind of stuff that costs a lot - jewelry, perfume, that sort of thing, I can't think of a thing to give her."  
  
"Tell me something about her. What does she like?"  
  
"Well, she's beautiful - but you probably have noticed that already," Clark ducked his head and blushed a little. "She's sad. Her parents died the day of the meteor shower. She saw it happen."  
  
"So I've heard," came the dry response.  
  
"Well, she likes to read. And she's lonely."  
  
"Lonely. Why does she feel lonely? She has Nell, and you and your friends, and until recently she had the cheerleading crowd."  
  
"That doesn't guarantee that she's not lonely."   
"Point taken. So, what do you think you can do to alleviate her loneliness?"  
  
Clark thought for a moment, then began to tell Leo the story of Lana's final happy memory.  
  
Later that afternoon, Leo paid Dr. Stephen Hamilton a visit.  
  
"I want to make you an offer." She pulled an envelope out of her pocket and held it out to Hamilton.  
  
With poor grace, Hamilton took it from her and opened it. "What do you expect to get for this?" He snapped as he looked from the $100,000 check to Leo.  
  
"You want to prove to the world you've been right all along? That check should cover your vindication."  
  
Hamilton nodded brusquely to accept her offer, then asked, "Tell me - why does a billionaire's daughter care so much about a bunch of rocks that fell out of the sky 12 years ago?"  
  
Leo turned for the door, then threw back over her shoulder, "I save that story for the people I trust."  
  
That evening, at the party, Lana was alone on the balcony. Soon she was joined by Leo.  
  
"Getting some air?"  
  
"Something like that," Lana said uncertainly.  
  
"Waiting for Clark?" Then she answered her own question. "I know Clark. He'll be here. If he can."  
  
Lana responded, faux-dismissively, "It's just a birthday."  
  
Leo smiled at her a little, then headed back inside.  
  
After Jody had been taken to the hospital, Clark ran to the mansion to find that Lana's party was long since over. He went to Lana and Nell's house and awakened Lana throwing pebbles at her bedroom window.  
  
"You kind of missed cocktail hour."  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"I told you I stopped believing in happy birthdays a long time ago."  
  
"Well, maybe I can change that. Look, I know I blew it tonight, but at least let me give you your present."  
  
"When?"  
  
"Now."  
  
"Pass the popcorn," Lana requested as they sat in the cab of the Kents' truck watching the cartoon shorts being shown on the side of the barn.  
  
Clark handed the bag over, and they reached in for some simultaneously.  
  
Suddenly even the sound of their breathing stopped.   
"Clark . . . I . . ." was all Lana got out before they stared deeply into each other's eyes, pulled towards one another.  
  
The popcorn bag fell to the floor, forgotten, as Clark raised his hands to her hair, pulling her gently to him for a kiss. 


End file.
